Advertising forms an important part of broadcast programming including broadcast video (television), radio and printed media. The revenues generated from advertisers subsidize and in some cases pay entirely for programming received by subscribers. For example, over the air broadcast programming (non-cable television) is provided entirely free to viewers and is essentially paid for by the advertisements placed in the shows that are watched. Even in cable television systems and satellite-based systems, the revenues from advertisements subsidize the cost of the programming, and were it not for advertisements, the monthly subscription rates for cable television would be many times higher than at present. Radio similarly offers free programming based on payments for advertising. The low cost of newspapers and magazines is based on the subsidization of the cost of reporting, printing and distribution from the advertising revenues.
Techniques for inserting pre-recorded spot messages into broadcast transmission have been known. Generally, broadcast video sources (i.e., TV networks, special interest channels, etc.) schedule their air time with two types of information: “programming” for the purpose of informing or entertaining, and “avails” for the purpose of advertising. The avails may occupy roughly 20-25% of the total transmitting time, and are usually divided into smaller intervals of 15, 30, or 60 seconds.
In many prior art systems, the insertion of advertisements in avails is handled by a combination of cue-tone detectors, switching equipment and tape players which hold the advertising material. Upon receipt of the cue tones, an insertion controller automatically turns on a tape player containing the advertisement. Switching equipment then switches the system output from the video and audio signals received from the programming source to the output of the tape player. The tape player remains on for the duration of the advertising, after which the insertion controller causes the switching equipment to switch back to the video and audio channels of the programming source. When switched, these successive program and advertising segments usually feed to a radio-frequency (RF) modulator for delivery to the subscribers.
Many subscriber television systems, such as cable television are currently being converted to digital equipment. These new digital systems compress the advertising data according to decompression standards, such as a Motion Picture Experts Group (MPEG) compression standard (currently MPEG-2 standard). The compressed data is then stored as a digital file on a large disk drive (or several drives). Upon receipt of the cue tone, the digital file is spooled (“played”) off of the drive to a decompressor. The video and accompanying audio data are decompressed back to standard video and audio, and switched into the video/audio feed of the RF modulator for delivery to the subscriber.
A prior art (present model) of providing advertisements along with actual programming is based on linked sponsorship. In the linked sponsorship model, the advertisements are inserted into the actual programming based on the demographic information related to the viewers/subscribers. However, the ability to transmit information digitally allows programming and advertisements to be transported from various geographic locations and arranged in a fashion which permits an optimized program to be presented to a subscriber.
The transition to the digital age permits a migration to new methods of advertising based on what is termed orthogonal sponsorship. In orthogonal sponsorship, the advertisements are targeted at subscribers based on a determination that the advertisement will be of interest to the subscriber and that the subscriber is likely to ultimately purchase the product or service being advertised.
The digital systems are capable of handling both linked sponsorship, orthogonal sponsorship and a combination of both. However, what is required is a method and apparatus for identifying advertising opportunities, presenting those opportunities to advertisers, receiving information about the advertisements, determining the ability to insert the advertisements, managing the insertion process, and returning to the program in the digital video arena.